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iBeej

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Everything posted by iBeej

  1. LOL!! Until you're sitting on the launchpad and you say, "Well... Definitely tomorrow. Yeah tomorrow." Otherwise, good luck. lol
  2. Moho. I hate Moho. It's a ÃŽâ€v whore.
  3. Nope. Not without mods or modifying the craft file manually. And if you aren't pleased with the aesthetics of adding on multi-port dock connectors to continue building, and you want to play the game clean without mods or "cheating" it, then my advice would be to undock the broken module and deorbit it and send up a new one. That should provide some fun missions for you. I think it would be fun to send up a craft, especially an SSTO that can dock with the now separated station module and haul it back down to a collision course with Kerbin. Then fix your launch vehicle problems and send up a pretty new module. In fact, I think i'm going to go break my station now...
  4. I suspect, staging will actually be very carefully considered and reduced by most players after economy is implemented. Why staging? Because if they give you incentive to recover all your expensive parts, you're going to reduce the amount of stages to either 1.) reduce the chances of damage and 2.) because you will have to put parachutes on literally everything you intend to drop. (which also increases weight) And once you are in orbit, you are not recovering anything without a second mission. That's if Squad goes this route. Who knows, but it could lead to some really interesting game play and design.
  5. No. First, remember this rule. It's always most efficient to perform your prograde or retrograde burns at Apoapsis and Periapsis. Let's say your orbit is LARGER than your target orbit at your orbit's Apoapsis. The quickest and most efficient way to match your orbit there, is to perform a RETROGRADE burn at your Periapsis. This will reduce the Apoapsis Altitude. To increase the Apoapsis altitude, you burn PROGRADE at your Periapsis. This is true whether you are at Periapsis or Apoapsis. Burning at Periapsis will effect Apoapsis. And burning at Apoapsis will effect Periapsis. You will need to adjust BOTH Periapsis and Apoapsis at their OPPOSITES. Right now, you're probably thinking, "But if I burn retrograde at my Periapsis, it will lower my Periapsis and I will fall to the planet!" And while that's an "intuitive" thought, it's wrong and it doesn't work that way. In fact, if you are PRECISELY at Periapsis and burn retrograde, your altitude AT Periapsis will barely change at all. This is due to "Precession" thanks to our friend gravity. It takes gravity time to pull us down to the planet. And since we are already at velocity, the effect of burning retrograde doesn't happen until later in the orbit. (At Apoapsis). I'm telling you all of this because it's important to understand these core concepts if you want to be successful. Just remember that retrograde slows your speed. Hence lowers your altitude. And prograde increases your speed, hence raises your altitude. But much later in your orbit. WARNING: Be careful with your use of burning toward the purple target marker at any distance greater than 2km from your target. This is the quickest way to screw up your orbit unless you are close enough. Does that make sense?
  6. The main thing you need to remember is orbital mechanics 101. Your speed is directly relative to your altitude. So it's literally (physics) impossible for you to "catch" your target while at the exact same orbit and eccentricity. As soon as you burn and increase speed, you will increase your altitude. For example, burning prograde at Periapsis will increase your Apoapsis altitude, and vice versa. So how do you "catch" your target? The simplest explanation I have given folks on this one is imagining your orbit like a circular race track. We all know that a race car cutting on the "inside" of the track while both cars are going the same speed results in a "gain". So if you want to catch up, you gotta cut. If you want to slow down, you gotta move to the outside lane. Once you do this, and you begin to close in on your target, remember to fix your eccentricity so both Periapsis and Apoapsis are relatively close to target orbit. The rest is simply minor maneuvers with your target when you're within range. And by range I mean, 2km at most if you don't want to be ping ponging back and forth between prograde and retrograde all night. So to make it easy on yourself, make sure you get your intercept markers to within 2km before fixing your eccentricity. It takes practice, but once you figure it out, it's like a light bulb. And riding a bike. You will ask yourself why you ever thought it was hard after all of this. Good luck!
  7. I managed to pull it off by scripting with KOS mod. I had satellites that always pointed toward Kerbin. The catch however, was this stopped working if you returned to the space center or VAB. (Because exiting stops the script execution) So long term, the answer is no.
  8. 425 hours on Steam and probably another 200 non steam shortly before .18 came out. So yeah, more than I care to admit lol
  9. I almost ALWAYS adjust lights. I found that 45 degrees is a good angle for spot lamps when aiming for ground illumination and 5-15 degrees for standard lamps when illuminating exterior craft surfaces. The lights are just really finicky and you have to play with them.
  10. Congratulations! I really enjoy reading these kinds of posts because I remember how I felt when I did it back in .18. It's like joining the mile high club, only higher and better than s*x.
  11. EVE It's like Hotel California. You can check out any time you like but you can NEVER leave.
  12. You know you have played Kerbal Space program too much when you constantly refer to your water heater as a Rockomax Fuel Tank.
  13. Another little trick you can do to make efficient use of staging without interstage decouplers is by stacking SRB's and putting each engine in its own stage. Then during flight, you wait until the fuel of the burning SRB is down to 10% and you STAGE (ignite) the SRB above it, intentionally and effectively exploding the nearly depleted SRB below. Then just make sure you put the parachute in the last stage and you're set!! Hope this helps and good luck!
  14. I started in .18, played the demo for 15 minutes and said "screw this... I'm BUYING it." A day later I made orbit, albeit extremely elliptical, but it wasn't until I put in serious effort in to an entire Mun Lander+Rover with return, that I became beyond obsessed with KSP. Like others, I think the first and most memorable experience was that first Mun Landing. And it was "terribly executed" by my standards today. It was so difficult and messy and it's very routine and easy for me to do now. I can build an entire craft+return in 15 minutes and setup a launch window with orbits, landing perfectly and coming home without any failures. It's just crazy to realize how far you evolve in this game!!!
  15. Here is the simple easy constant I have learned when it comes to intersect any orbiting celestial body relative to a fixed position. Basically, anything orbiting your current position: 45 degrees. Launching from Kerbin? You can intersect the Mun (or Minmus) without an orbit, simply going straight up, if you launch when your target is -45 degrees. Example, in map mode if you launched straight up, your position on the ground (relative to Kerbin) would be 12 o clock, and the Mun would be at the 2 o'clock position. What if you're orbiting Kerbin? Then the Mun should be in the same 45 degree position relative to your PROGRADE. (Your current direction). To make this easier, don't even bother eyeballing it like a clock. Instead, simply ensure your "purple prograde target" on the nav ball is on the 45 degree mark if launching.... Or if in an orbit, simply 45 degrees FROM your prograde on the nav ball. (Obviously you need to be 45 degrees AHEAD of your target prograde, or else you miss it.) This sounds complicated, but it's not. At 45 degrees you will hit it every time. Whether it is the Mun or Minmus. Or whether it's Laythe from a Jool orbit. 45 degrees. Also don't forget inclination. So you should have enough Delta V to accommodate adjustments for approach velocity and inclination. And obviously.. The 45 degree magic number does NOT apply for transfer between two seperate orbiting bodies. (Planet to Planet or Moon to Moon). That involves Phase Angles, and that's an entirely different ball game. For me, the answer to the universe isn't 42. It's 45. Either way, close enough.
  16. Multiplayer.. Or more like social with chat and sharing screenshots, plus seeing others on your map, check out the addon "Kerbal Live Feed". I love it.
  17. Apollo 13 for me definitely. Loved watching the docking procedure.
  18. I found a trick when this happens. Alt right click the two tanks and fuel transfer.
  19. My absolute biggest noob fail was when I attempted a landing on Jool... I had no idea it was a gas giant and never read the stats on it. During descent I remember thinking... "Where the hell is the ground?" Kraken...
  20. I have become sort of a master of disaster when it comes to the issues you describe. There are 3 very important things you need to be aware of when "disassembling" occurs on the launch pad. 1.) The more connection points between parts, the more flexible (wobbly) the craft gets. The FURTHER you build away from center of mass, exponentially increases instability. The solution? Make sure you use larger tanks of fuel instead of lots of tiny ones. (Less connection points) and make sure you use STRUTS. 2.) I found that decouplers or separators are very prone to failure. Especially if the center of mass for a rocket is off balance from its connection points. If its really bad, they fail before you even ignite. You need to use struts to support your decouplers and separators. 3.) Launch clamp placement. I found that these little buggers cause a vast majority of my launch pad explosions. If they aren't placed right, or if they overlap each other or if their frames pass through the body of your vehicle, the rockets shakes itself apart. Put your clamps on the center of mass for the vehicle and then watch its behavior on the launch pad. Any piece that flexes, is either going to cause a catastrophic failure on the launch pad by shaking or it will inevitably cause uncontrollable unstable craft in flight. So watch for things flexing or moving. Or flat breaking. The big trick to finding massive failures is by hitting F3 and looking at the list of failures. Look what breaks first and start there. It will even tell you if launch clamps fail. If those fail, it puts strain in everything else and it's a big domino effect. Building everything efficiently and close to center of mass (and being well balanced when you do build further from center) is a huge key to keeping a craft stable and strong. And this needs to be considered when you go through your STAGES! because dropping mass, shifts your center of mass. So remember, you can fix all this and make it stable at launch but if your stages all drop off the bottom with a very heavy payload at the top, you can have serious pitching down when still in your ascent. This isn't so much of a problem when you are in transfer, but getting there... Is the key. Struts, clamps, and center of mass with staging. Pay close attention to all of those. Hope this helps!
  21. Do I sense a weird theme here? Bob continually violates safety protocol and wonders off in the middle of the night on the Mun. The last time I loaded my game he mysteriously vanished from the landing site and was about 1/4 the Mun circumference and I have no idea how he even got there. He's just standing there. Looking for something.....
  22. EVE is what I call the "devil planet" because it's one of the most deceptive planets in the solar system. On one hand, it's very close to Kerbin and seems easy to land on with its dense atmosphere. But on the other hand, it has the highest gravity of any planet, and while you slow down to a crawl through the atmosphere with little effort, you pancake HARD all of a sudden at only 1km from the surface at only 30m/s, thinking "you got this". To make matters worse, there is a LOT of liquid covering the planet and can splash down a nicely crafted lander instead of landing it. So your trajectory is also important. Then to top it all off, you have to return home, and we already discussed the severe gravity issue. Speaking of gravity, I had deployable solar panels on my lander, and after landing and then extending the panels, the gravity ripped them off. lol I couldn't believe it. I don't use nuclear engines. You don't need THAT much delta V if you do a direct (non orbit) rendezvous with EVE if you get your phase angle right. It's actually very easy to reach. Very easy to descend. But it surprised me when I had my side mounted engines at full throttle at only 900 meters from the surface and still coming down at 10m/s. So I deployed THREE side mounted chutes on the lander as well, and I was still coming down fast enough to break the gear (just barely) and I ALSO kicked on RCS, smashed the H key on my keyboard (6 RCS thrusters on the bottom) and started grinding my teeth. The touchdown was beautiful, but holy crap there wasn't a lot of room for error. The top portion of my lander is equipped with a large fuel tank and a main sail with no other weight attached to it but the command pod, which gets me in to an escape trajectory to return home. The best way I can describe the feeling of trying to pilot the atmosphere on EVE, is like a giant magnet. It sucks you straight down. Fast, violently, but the atmosphere is so dense that it "fools" you. Yeah, tricky beast EVE is. I would go for Duna if you haven't already, so you can appreciate the contrast. Those two planets are polar opposites, I swear. Good luck!! Keep us posted on your attempts.
  23. Congrats!! Remember, KSP is still an Alpha. The game is not complete. Squad is working on those features. Right now, the game is very much a sandbox. You challenge yourself. You do whatever you want to do. You can find ways to party and reward yourself with clever designs and missions. Here let me give you your next mission. So you got in to orbit? And you returned with a manned craft? Congrats! Here is your next mission. Apply what you have learned and reward yourself for it later by constructing a small station with a living quarters and a docking port. Launch it in to a sustained orbit above 100km. Then build another module or use the same one and launch again, match the prior orbit and fully dock with your station. In the future you will be able to dock fuel tanks to your station and start using it as a dock and launch staging area for future missions. Biggest pat on the back and you do it yourself. Pretty cool if you ask me. Good luck!!
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